Introduction: How to Make Sound Come Alive - Cymatics

About: I am an A-Levels Student at Karachi Grammar School, Pakistan. My passion is physics and mechanics and I want to be a Mechanical Engineer in the future. Actually anything in the field of engineering would do. :P



How to make Sound come alive?? That is simple. This theory is known as Cymatics. Cymatics is the study of visible sound and visible vibrations. By transmitting sound waves through any sort of medium, we are able to see different patterns emerging. So in this Instructable, I will be teaching you how to actually conduct this experiment.

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Made By Manish Kumar, Murtaza Tunio, Minaam Abbas

Step 1: What You Need

A waterproof Speaker
A Guitar amplifier
Wire Stripper
Crocodile Clips
Speaker Wires
A Tone Generator
A Screw Driver
Scissors
Soldering Iron
Amplifier Wire (PC to amplifier)



Step 2: Unscrewing

Unscrew the back lid and the speaker from the amplifier. Disconnect the wire connecting the amplifier to the speaker itself. If the speaker is waterproof, you can use that. But most of them aren't. The one in the previous picture is. 

Step 3: Crocodile Clip Wires

Step 4:

Attach the crocodile clip wire to the speaker, as shown in the picture. 

Step 5:

Pour some water over the speaker. Or you can get a metal box if your speaker isn't waterproof. Pour water in it. 

Step 6: NCH Tone Generator

Download a tone generator off the internet. I downloaded the NCH tone generator. It was a 14 day trial version.

Step 7: Plugging in the Wire.

Plug in the power supply, the Amplifier wire. You can see the Amplifier settings I used. 

Note: Higher Frequencies usually require greater amplitude. 

Step 8: Powder



I started with a solid medium, powder. Here are the pictures of what happened. I used a Sine Frequency. I set the setting for 60 Hz, 80 Hz, 100 Hz, 120 Hz and finally 200 Hz. 

You can see the powder moving due to the pressure differences. Regions of maximum and minimum displacement are made visible in a thin coating of particles.

Step 9: Water

I used the same frequencies as before and you will notice that with the frequency, the patterns become more intricate and sophisticated. 


Step 10: Cornstarch

If you mix cornflour and water (Oobleck), you obtain a non-Newtonian fluid. A non-Newtonian fluid is a fluid whose fluid properties change with the pressure applied. It basically changes its state according to pressure. For example, if compressed, the fluid acts as a solid. But it acts as a liquid if something light weight is dropped onto it. 

It's viscosity also depends on the force applied to the liquid or how fast an object is moving through the liquid.

Not all non-Newtonian Fluids behave in the same way when stress is applied – some become more solid, others more fluid. Some non-Newtonian fluids react as a result of the amount of stress applied, while others react as a result of the length of time that stress is applied.

Below is the easiest to make non-Newtonian fluid, oobleck. 

Enjoy :)

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